New Zealand to Fiji Trip.

Sunset at Sea



Oliver on the helm, chocolate cake in hand, doing 10knots surfing down the waves.



Rylee on the Big Bouncy Castle.



The Biggest Ferris Wheel. Run by a toothless smoking Fijian. The running gear comprised of a very large looking dif and a very long wire cable. Not sure on the OSH standards at this show.



Dan and Paige, a bit blurry as they went so fast!



Our Crew, Phil and Joel enjoying the sights of a Fiji Festival.



Oliver enjoying the smaller bouncy castle.



The big bouncy castle.



Yah. Leaving Day! Tuesday 21st June. Crew arrived. New shore charger installed and charging. Food topped up. Customs clearance and paper work faxed to Fiji, ready to go.
We cast off lines at 1415ish, didn’t actually take too much notice this time! Motored out of Marsden, sails set while familiarising the crew with the workings of Division II and off out towards Whangarei Heads. A little bumpy with wind against tide, a chat about watches and how to manage them on the way to towards the “Chicks”. For the next 8-9 days we had three hours on, nine off around the clock. Captain Dan had 9-12, I had 12-3, Phil 3-6 and Junior Crew Joel (17) 6-9, morning and night! For me that meant split sleep as I also need to work around the kids being awake during the day and letting Dan sleep as much as possible as if any changes/decisions needed making he needed to be around to help with that.
Our log for the first 24 hours wasn’t completed. Not sure why but we were all probably just getting used to things. I do know it wasn’t rough or really uncomfortable at all but still most of us felt a little unwell, and the lethargy again had set in, so not much was done.
On the Wednesday morning it was a little disheartening to realise that we could still see land in the form of a peak on the northern side of the Bay of Islands! We ran the generator and motored for a while in the afternoon as no wind to help us on the way, but knew that Northerlies were coming and forecast to last 12-24 hours, up to 25 knots. Some shipping was seen, and fishing vessels and again our friends the albatross put on a lovely show.
Over night the northerly kicked in and as it started I remember saying I hoped it stayed longer than forecast as at that stage we were making good speed and it was quite comfortable and a welcome change to going nowhere fast. I soon changed my mind about that as Thursday progressed and we were constantly reducing sail to try and make the ride as comfortable as possible. Rylee and Oliver didn’t even get out of bed until nearly midday, and only because nature called. Every time I moved I was sick, and feel that this is the worst I had ever been! Usually I have a few hours respite between bouts of sickness, but it was unrelenting this day. We were in survival mode, but the boat was fine. No food was really eaten, and keeping fluids down was a challenge, and later on when on I watch started worrying about the kids as had not seen them take much water over the day.
By midnight Thursday/Friday as I was coming on to watch Dan had experienced squalls and lightening in the three hours previous and we were down to third reef with genoa still around half. I had the first couple of hours with this sail plan trying to keep a Northerly heading, but Dan climbed out of bed in the small hours as it was obviously uncomfortable down there and I had been having squalls come through with wind speeds in the mid to high 40s and one gust up to 50 knots. After telling Dan this we got rid of the mainsail and headed the boat more downwind under genoa for a more comfortable ride. Doing this just totally changed the feel of the boat and we all, including Div II, all got a well deserved rest.
The one good thing about this wind was that the new wind generators pumped in the power and we only needed to run the generator once again after this later in the trip which was a change from last year when we had to run it for at least a tank of fuel every second day or so to keep up with the running of instruments, lights and radio.
Friday was a recovery day for everyone and we continued without mainsail until midafternoon. A few new activity books for the kids to keep them occupied and some sugary food as a treat.
After that the rest of the trip had winds from the westerly sector with following seas which meant lots of surfing down waves but not quite in the right direction as we weren’t able to go as north as we would have liked. The conditions did make for a fairly comfortable ride from then on and also saw Phil clock our top speed for the trip at 19.9knots.
One night when I was on watch I saw for the first time a moon bow! I got an awful fright as I had no idea what it was and even though I had been regularly looking around the horizon, it just appeared really quickly and thoughts of UFOs went through my head until I worked out what it was! It was a huge arc in the sky of white light with a slightly lighter blackness under the arc than was above it. Dan happened to be up and about so got him to check it out just in case!
On day 7 we finally put in our first gybe and changed heading to 45 degrees as if we had kept on the way we were we would have got to Port Vila in Vanuatu instead.
On the Wednesday morning we had Kendavu off to our starboard side and as the day progressed more and more of Viti Levu came into sight. We had a great run of easing seas and South Easterly winds (finally!) up to 20 knots which saw us pass through Navula Passage in the reef that surrounds the bottom of the island just after sunset.
We anchored in the bay just there for the night as there are some navigational hazards inside the reef on the way to Lautoka that we didn’t want to have to negotiate at night. I solid night’s sleep for everyone and then we upped anchor even before breakfast as last time we came through we had no wind for the trip up the coast. We had a great morning sail seeing us in Lautoka late morning and Dan heading over to clear customs and immigration before they went to lunch.
There were a couple of changes to the formalities from last year. The health clearance has gone up over 400% from $40.00 to $172.50 plus $3.00 for the taxi! (Last time Dan was driven to the ATM!) And the Quarintine Officer also boarded the boat this time, but I don’t think he really knew what he was looking for, just saying that all out food had to stay on our boat, and after prompting told us where we needed to dump our rubbish.
This all took to around 5pm on the Thursday, so we couldn’t leave the boat in all this time. Friday morning and we all headed into town to get our cruising permits and for a change in the crew list at immigration. The plan was then a quick top up from the farmers market then back to the boat, but when we got into town we found there was a Farmers Festival with rides and food stalls, so we had lunch there and the kids went on a couple of bouncy castles and Paige and Dan went on one of the four Ferris Wheels. This meant a late afternoon return to the boat but very happy and contented travellers!